For example, the belt layer of a pneumatic radial tire is produced in such a manner that a band-shaped body of a large width comprising a number of aligned reinforcing cords impregnated with unvulcanized rubber is bias-cut at a predetermined angle and width, the bias-cut band strips are spliced side to side thereby forming an elongate belt material and the elongate belt material is wound around a cell so as to be temporarily stocked. This belt material is drawn out from the cell at the time of forming the belt layer and is cut along the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing cords to a length corresponding to the peripheral length of the belt layer thereby obtaining a belt material for one tire.
However, the width and length of the belt material for one tire differ depending on the size of the tire, and the cord angle also differs depending on the specifications of the tire so that it is necessary to stock the belt materials produced in the above-described manner as those which have different sizes with every tire specifications. Accordingly, in order to prepare quite a variety of kinds of belt materials as intermediate members, there has hitherto been a problem that a wide space for stocking the tire materials is required.
As a countermeasure against the above-described problem, the present inventor once proposed a method of forming a belt material for one tire wherein a strip material of a small width comprising a plurality of reinforcing cords coated with unvulcanized rubber is fed to a conveyer, then the strip material is cut at a predetermined cutting angle to obtain a plurality of strips each having a predetermined length and a predetermined integer number of the cut strips are spliced to thereby obtain a belt material for one tire, so that the troublesomeness of having to prepare a variety of kinds of belt materials is eliminated. However, since the width of the strip material is as small as less than 60 mm, the lateral rigidity of the strip material itself is low and therefore, when the strip material is fed to the conveyer in the above-described manner, it becomes displaced or deformed so that it is difficult to accurately align and splice the strips after cutting the strip material. Accordingly, there has hitherto been the problem that the productivity of the belt material is greatly influenced by whether or not the splicing accuracy or splicing efficiency is favorable.
An object of the present invention is to provide a strip material aligning and splicing apparatus and method wherein strips each cut from a continuous strip material to a predetermined length can be aligned and spliced accurately and efficiently.